It's all happening so fast!

Yesterday started my 34th week of pregnancy. That means I have 6 weeks or less(hopefully) until Bentley is in my arms. I cannot even begin to tell how excited I am to see Jackson as a big brother and watch us become a family of 4. Jackson has been such a big help in getting Bentley's room all ready. He even helped me paint, I still can't believe I actually trusted my 2 year old with a paint brush...lol.

This past weekend Stefan finished the crown molding in Bentley's room which means now I can move on to actually putting all the finishing touches up. It's so exciting to see this vision that I had in my head come to a reality and I cannot wait to actually see it completely done.

This coming weekend I have my baby shower I'm really excited for it since I didn't really get one with Jackson since we were in NC for my entire pregnancy and his birth. We did have a "meet and greet" sort of thing when he was about a month old and people brought gifts to that but I wouldn't call it a baby shower. We are also going to be(weather permitting) taking family photo's of the 3 of us and some maternity pictures. I'm excited for these as well. So this should be a great weekend overall.

Risks and Consequences

Recently I was given a piece of information. This information was told to me in secrecy and normally I will take information told in secrecy to the grave, however for the sake of the giver I could not. Said information could potentially be life changing and alter this person's future and it was something they were taking too lightly. I spent over 24hrs battling in my head what to do with this secret. I eventually confided in my husband because I simply couldn't figure out what to do and the stress and worry was now eating me away inside.

Stefan and I deliberated for what seemed like hrs and both came to the same conclusion that the secret needed to be told and we knew who needed to know. The harder task was now at hand, HOW do you tell this information. It's never something easy to hear no matter who you are but definitely harder to hear when that person is one of the most important people in your life.

We decided to give the person who told me the secret an "ultimatum" basically and gave them a deadline of when they could confess the information themselves or we would tell shortly after that deadline was over. This was the best course of action because otherwise this person probably would have never confessed under their own duress, until a life changing event had occurred.

I am glad to say that this person stepped up to the plate and told well before the deadline was up. I know it took a great amount courage and maturity to do what they did and even though right now it seems as if their current world is crashing down around them, I can't help but have a huge sense of relief. Relief knowing that even if this person hates my guts for the time being, I did what I know in my heart was the right thing to do. I hopefully have prevented this person from becoming another statistic and furthermore give them back their innocence and youth.

Now we get to wait it out.....

(Sorry for having to be so vague! I needed to get this out but wanted the integrity of the persons this talks about to remain intact...after all the reason for posting this was not to blab this person's dirty laundry, but discuss my struggle with it.)

Sickness....

Let's suffice it to say that since Friday I have dealt with 3....count them 1, 2, 3 different illness in this house.

Let's start with Thursday:

Stefan called me from work saying that his throat was kind of scratchy and he had a slight headache. My thought was that it was from the weather changing since it goes from 60s/70s during the day to 30s/40s at night. No big deal! He didn't want me to make a doctors appointment because he agreed that it was probably nothing serious.

Friday:

Stefan again calls me from work only this time to tell me that his throat is killing him and he now had a cough and he thinks it's strep throat. I am a natural carrier of strep throat, meaning I can carry the virus but it doesn't actually make me sick, so there is always that chance at any time that I could pass it on to Stefan or Jackson. It was too late in the day at this point for me to call the doctor's office for an appointment so we decided to go to the RediClinic when he got home from work. If you don't know what a RediClinic is it's kind of like an urgent care that is open till 8pm everyday of the week including weekends...it's awesome and better yet it cost us no more than our insurance copay. Anyways, so my mom offered to watch Jackson while we went. Thankfully the strep test came back negative and he was diagnosed with just having a throat infection, unfortunately there aren't any medications he can take for this. I got into my herbal mood and made him a mixture of garlic water(boiling garlic cloves then straining out the cloves and using just the water) cayenne pepper, and salt. I had him gargle this every 3 hrs or so for 24 hrs straight minus when he was sleeping(unless he woke up from coughing ). By the time the 24hrs was up his throat was no longer hurting and he felt tons better.

It's now Saturday:

Jackson woke up completely stuffy and a slight cough. I doctored him at home and gave him medications that I had available hoping something would help. Well it didn't! He woke up from his nap and I had to use the bulb syringe(the one they gave us when he was born) and suck out his nose so he could have even a small change of breathing. It was GREEN! So off we went once again the the RediClinic for him to be diagnosed with what I had already known....a sinus infection. He is now on 2 antibiotics for the next 7-10 days. Later that evening Stefan starts with a runny nose and cough.....GREAT he now has a cold.

Sunday:

I spend this entire day taking care of Jackson and Stefan who both are now going through tissues like it's their job and I am wishing we would have bought stick in Kleenex. Bringing soups, liquids, crackers, medications, blankets, pillows, more tissues, changing diapers, making more soups, cuddling, cleaning up old dishes, putting in movies, the occasional trip to the bathroom for me to pee, and back to all of the above. I gave Jackson a bubble bath so he could relax and get some steam while Stefan took a shower at the same time(note: we have a separate shower and tub in the master). Then it was time for bed....Jackson had a really rough time with this since he wanted to suck on his pacifier but couldn't breathe out of his nose... after 1 1/2 hrs of him whining he finally fell asleep...Stefan on the other hand had already been sleeping for almost 2 hrs.

Monday:

Stefan is feeling a little better not so stuffy and his cough seems to be on the mend. Jackson woke up as if he had never been sick. I on the other hand have now woken up sick!!!! So here I am still trying to take care of 2 other sickos and I am sick myself. Thus Tuesday and today have also been rough but only for me. Stefan and Jackson are both well and doing their normal daily activities and I am dragging along as if I'm not even here. Hopefully this passes quickly for me as well and we will all be good this coming weekend.

Starting over...

It's been since May of last year that I posted a blog. A LOT has happened since then! So much so that I'm not even going to begin to start blogging about all of that, nope, nope, nope. Instead I will be starting as of right now. My goal is to write at least 1 blog a week, although I feel that once I get started things will flow a lot easier and I will have more things to write about giving me the opportunity for more than 1 blog a week. We shall see...

This does not count as my blog post for this week this is just a sort of heads up to any of my readers....although I imagine at this point I have none.

Mom*tog, have you stopped by to check it out?

I have recently started following Mom*tog as I purchased my first DSLR about a week ago. I have been trying my hardest to not take pictures on Auto and learn all the specifics about taking good photos She is giving aways an UNmanual today as part of her week long Mother's Day giveaways. What is an UNmanual you ask? Well, it's a simplified version of how to understand you camera and how it works. It's a great tool for people like myself who don't know much about photography and have given themselves headaches trying to read the manual and take pictures. You can enter here http://www.momtog.com to win one of these UNmanuals or you can purhase one for $95.

Wow It's been a while!

So I know it's been about 6 months since I made a blog post, seriously slacking, but things have been so overwhelmingly busy. I was "babysitting" Grandma Margaret since she was starting to have difficulties doing every day task, such as making breakfast, getting up and down off the bed, toilet, couch, etc. She had a few spells where she was falling for no apparent reason so it was just much safer if someone was there during the day to watch/help her until Margaret could get home from work. I was getting paid so it wasn't a bad gig at all. Now she is out in California visiting her other daughter for awhile so I am back to being home all day with Jackson....who by the way is growing more and more into a little boy everyday.

I am starting new budgeting techniques since the new year has started. So far things are a little rough since Stefan isn't working as many hours as he normally does, but these things happen and we are taking it with stride and doing our best when we can. Things should pick back up in a week or two so it's not that big of a deal. I'm gonna start making monthly meal plans and try my hardest to stick to them so we can cut back on our grocery bill. My dream would be to have a deep freezer and be able to buy in bulk but until then I will make cuts in other ways. Especially since we have the extra expense of my new car payment...but it's worth it to have a reliable vehicle that will grow with our growing family.

Speaking of growing family, we will be trying to expand ours come April, as we venture into TTC. The reason we choose April is because it gave us time to adjust to the new expenses and budget accordingly, it also allows for us to have our children's birthdays at different times of the year(if it doesn't take us long to get pregnant that is), I didn't wanna to have 1 b-day after the other with only weeks between them. I am really hoping for another boy for a few reason 1) I want to be able to use Jackson's clothes and such again, many of them he only wore once or twice and I would love to get more use out of them. 2) I really want 3 kids(I don't picture myself only being a mother of 2) and Stefan has told me that if the next one is a girl there is a very good chance he will not want anymore children. 3) boys are so much FUN.

I am also excited for the month of February. Valentine's Day is going to be great this year. Stefan and I plan on going it Kemah for the day as we did last year, but the difference is I will enjoy myself this time. Last year, I was worried about leaving my 7 month old for the day and spent most of the day wondering and worrying about him. Not that he wasn't in great hands, Margaret loves him more than she ever thought she would love a child(considering she has none of her own) and she enjoys spending days with him whenever she can. The best part of February will be that Ashley and Gunnar are coming back to visit. I really have found the best friend in the world! I can't be my goofy, uncordinated self around her and she doesn't mind one bit. I think our friendship has grown alot since she has been her in November. I cannot wait to see GunGun again. He is growing more and more into a toddler than an infant and I can't wait to see how Jackson interacts with him this time compared to last time, since Gunnar is now mobile.

I really wanna make this blog thing work, and I know it just takes a little time and devotion to become what I want it to be. Hopefully since things seem to be calming down I will have more time to keep up with this... I guess only time will tell.

Whew...it's been too long.

It's been way to long since the last time I updated. A lot has happened, I'm not sure where to begin.

In June, I went to Arkansas for 10 days to see family, many met Jackson for the first time. It was great being out in the country, catching fireflies, watch wild animals play in the front yard, and actually be able to see the stars at night. We went to the drive in while we were there and saw Night at the Museum 2, which was really good by the way...I know a little late with my movie review.

Jackson spent most of his time:

Playing with horses. He called them "bows" that's what he called cows as well.And relaxing by the pond, watching the Koi fish and frogs play. Mostly he wanted to swim but we wouldn't let him.

As you all know June 21st was Father's Day, Stefan's first one actually. I just have to say that this man is the best Father in the world. He really has come into this whole parenting thing really well. He loves playing with Jackson and teaching him things.

He didn't really wanna do much for Father's Day seeing as he works 6 days a week, and Father's Day feel on his only day off we just hung around the house and played with Jackson. I did get him a small gift, but since we are close to getting into the new house we decided to save all our gift giving ideas till the house is done. He wants a nice grill for the backyard.

Well that pretty much sums up June. Once I finish uploaded Jackson's birthday pictures and videos I will be getting on the the next blog.

Our first house!

Well, it is official.  We are going to be homeowners sometime in August/September.  We had our studio visit where we got to pick out all of our stuff.  We will have Dark Cherry cabinets in the kitchen, with black Silestone counter tops.  We will have all black top of the line appliances.  We have a chocolate brown and black tile that will be on the floor in all wetspaces(ie: kitchen, entry way, laundry room, and both bathrooms) as well as the backsplash in the kitchen.  We have dark gray/brown carpet( hard to describe the real color).  We have rounded corners, and a light taupe/tan color on all the walls.  Oh yea, and we will also have a kick-ass alarm system, complete with motion sensor(with pet immunity up to 80lbs....considering Wilson is in the 70lb range) and a glass breaker detector.  I guess I could give you an idea of what the layout is huh.  Well it's 3 bedrooms 2 full bathrooms.  Living room, family room, dining room and a nice walk-in-closet in the master. A spacious laundry room....where again we will have top of the line whirlpool washer and dryers. It's 1849 sq. ft. tons of room for a growing family.  I am so excited, I just cannot wait for it to be done...I am so tired of living with my ex-MIL..yes I said Ex just any case anyone was wondering. It has been almost a year of this and boy is it exhausting.

This can't be good!

I have some serious baby fever.  Ever since Bret went to the card reader and he was told that if I wasn't already preggo I would be in 4 months(August), I have been thinking about it.  Not good I know, but the more I think about it the more I would like to be preggo again.  I miss feeling a baby move inside me, and wondering what he/she is going to look like.  It's not like the timing would be wrong because by the time the baby would be born Jackson would be almost 2.  I guess the oly bad part is the fact that we will be hopefully moving into the new house then and I would hate to have to be dealing with morning sickness and all that and be stressed out with the move and things as well.  Man someone talk me out of this!....and FAST!

Easter time

Well this will be Jackson's first Easter and even though he will not remember it I still got him an Easter basket.  It will have a new toy race car, some bath toys, a t-shirt( I was gonna get it for him anyways and just figured why not add it to the basket), some Elmo easter eggs, and and Elmo board book.  Yes I will admit that there is some candy in there too, however, that is for Stefan and I since technically we don't get Easter baskets anymore.  We will live vicariously through our children now.  I also managed to take some photos of Jackson with the Easter theme I will post a few of those for all to see. I am going to make a second attempt at this probably tomorrow, he was a little cranky because it was close to nap time.  I will also have a post Easter blog up shortly after Easter.  We will be dying Easter eggs on Friday, and have a small party on Sunday to celebrate.

Okay so I know I'm behind but....

Let's just say things have been crazy.  Let's start off with the fact that grandma has shingles and so taking care of her has been an overwhelming task added to my normal everyday work with Jackson.  Nonetheless, she seems to be doing better and is now back at her own place.  We have also been looking at buying a house.  We looked at 3 different houses yesterday and let me tell you I fell in LOVE with the 3rd house we looked at.  It would fit our family needs perfectly.  3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms/1 half bath, game room, nice urgraded kitchen with stainless appliances, hardwood floors in the living room, tile where we want tile, a tiki hut in the backyard as well as a swingset. I don't think we could find a better starter home if we tried.  Stefan and I will be going to BOA this afternoon to start the pre-approval process for our home loan.  I will eventually post pictures but as of right now I don't want to jinx it and say this is my house yet.  HEHE!! I feel all gidy inside and like we are on a huge adventure. I have also sat down and worked with our finances to see where we stand and what we need to make each month to cover all of our bills for the new place.  Granted these are all estimates because obviously I don't quite know how much each thing is going to cost us yet.  

The ultimate Hunt

Why does house hunting have to be so stressful?  I will admit upfront that I haven't been as proactive with this as I could have been, but with that being said it still is a rather difficult process.  I found a house a few weeks ago that fit our criteria perfectly and would have been an awesome starter house, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big living room and kitchen and an optional study/4th bedroom.  It was built in 2000 so it was new in comparison to several others we had looked at.  I contacted the realtor to schedule a showing and waited patiently to hear back from her.  The next day when I finally heard back from her she informed me that there was already 7 offers on the house and wanted to help me find something else.   I was a little heartbroken, honestly I just figured we would jump into this and find a house and voila it would be a done deal.  I was a little discouraged but then again who really buys the first house they see?  

I have been looking every couple of days to see if anything new becomes available, and went 3-4 weeks with no change.  I would be working with a realtor if Stefan would wholeheartedly jump into this with me, but alas I feel that I will be doing most of this by myself.  I know that if I said lets please go look at this house or what not he would be up in a second but I want him to be more proactive in the process to start with. 

I have found another house, ironically in the same neighborhood as the first, not sure if thats a sign or not.  Anyways, it's bigger than the first, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, gameroom, living room, den, so on so forth.  I contacted the realtor yesterday, 3/9/08 to schedule a showing...never heard a damn thing back from her.  She could have atleast been professional about it and sent a message back with some sort of acknowledgement of my email..but I got shit.  Anyways, I just sent her another message regarding the house using Stefan's email address hoping since it sounds a little more legit than mine that I will finally hear something back from her.  I just hope this works out, preferrably in our favor but if not I'm sure God has a good reason for it.  

This is just my mini-rant at the whole house hunting process...

I know there will be an update of some sorts later.

March 8th

This is my best friends birthday!!! Although to be honest with you I don't think you could consider us best friends anymore.  She has moved to Mississippi with her fiance, no I'm not mad at her for that.  I chose to follow my path and move to North Carolina with Stefan and she has every right to follow her path as well,  however that being said she has not made much of an effort to stay in touch.  I'm upset that I have lost one of my closest and dearest friends of over 13 years!  Why do people drift apart?  I know that everyone lives their own lives and sometimes you get so caught up in your own life that you forget about others.  I'm not pointing fingers because I am guilty of this as well, it just sucks that it happens.  I sent her a couple of text wishing her a happy birthday and asking how her day went and so on....I received 1 text back and it said Thanks!!!  I know I could have called but I never know what her schedule is and didn't wanna interupt if she was working or something. I figured if she had text me back then I would call.  After recieving 1 text I figured she was busy with other things and didn't have time to talk.  I just wished we could have done all the things we said we would do when we were younger.   We talked about taking family trips together and our kids growing up together(allthough she is lacking in this department right now...LOL), just so much that now it looks like will never happen.  She has talked about moving to France or Spain, what for I have no clue, but again that's here new dreams.  

I guess it just hurts that on my best friends birthday I don't get to do anything else but send a few text and only get 1 response.  I know it's supposed to be the thought that counts and I know it does but still I want more...is that to much to ask from your friends?  

So I need some motivation....

I am looking for some inspiration to be able to contribute to this blog like I really want to.  I want this to not only be a way to remember things that have happened in my life but I also want to make this creative and not just the come by every day or two and write down what's been going on.  I want to incorporate pictures and others odds and ends to this so in a year from now when I am looking back on what I did it's not just a pages and pages of reading.  I have thought of  trying to have a theme for each week so to speak where I base my blogs off of this theme, however that is 52 different themes...that's a lot.  Maybe I will just make sure I take some pictures every week and post them on here no matter what the content is. 

Seeing as I haven't quite found the direction I wanna take I will, just as I have the days before, write what has happened.

Today has been pretty uneventful.  I woke this morning in the same mannor I have for the past ohh I dunno 8 months,  Jackson talking to his mobile and laughing.  He always, well I shouldn't say always, usually he wakes up in such a good mood and ready to start the day with a smile on his face.  After our breakfast and our morning playdate we got ready and headed out to run our what seems like daily errands.  First if was off to Target because daddy need some new socks and some inserts for his new work boots.  We also snagged the next 2 seasons of Family Guy as the were on sale for $16 a piece when the are normally atleast $30.  Then it was off to Jared, yea yea I know "I can't believe he went to Jared", to get my wedding set inspected.  Once the rings were dropped off we snagged some Taco Bell and headed home.  I had some time to kill since I couldn't get my rings back till sometime after 1 pm.  JackJack went down for a short nap and I enjoyed my delectable lunch and then wandered around on the interwebs to kill sometime. Yea, that time could have been better utilized but ya know every once in awhile I need some time to just kill not have to think or do anything and today was one of those days.  Anyways, apparently Margaret called the Engineers to come inspect the house so we could have our flood insurance reduced.  Well the weren't supposed to come till Thursday of Friday but nope they showed up today.  After dealing with him for about an hour we returned to Jared to get my rings back.  They are all shiny and purdy now!!! To this day I am still in love with them, and couldn't imagine ever placing another ring on that finger.  He did such a great job picking them out and after almost 3 years of marriage I am still in total awe.  

I think I have come to the conclusion of what I am going to do as far as my inspiration goes.  I think I am just going to take pictures randomly throughout the week and post them with a little caption to explain them.  So stay tuned for the next blog hopefully with pictures.

Safe and Sound

My Montage 3/3/09

Day 1

So in light of the new events that have happened this past year I decided that keeping a journal would be my new tradition. Well lets see it's March 1st and I've made all of 3 entries into it. I just don't have the time to sit and handwrite things that are happening, mainly because I have an 8 month old(well he'll be 8 months on the 3rd) sitting on my lap most of the time.

So where should I start....
I am constantly unsure of what should be written down, ya know the memories that I forever wanna keep safe. I am constantly typing up something and then erasing it because when I read over it again I realize it sounds silly, but I am going to try my hardest not to use the backspace button. These are my memories and my thoughts why and how are they silly?

On to today. It started out relatively uneventful. Stefan and I both got a good solid nights sleep!! Hooray for that!!! Jackson didn't make a peep till 7:15 this morning. It was wonderful to not have to drag my feet the 1o steps it takes to get from by our bedroom to his, and find the paci and place the covers back over his tiny little body. After changing a very wet diaper I put Jackson in his Pack N Play(PNP) to play with his managery of toys. Discussing his dreams with Lion, Pony, and Shark he chews on the letter Q and relaxes watching Thomas the Tank on this cold Sunday morning. I start flipping through the Sunday paper clipping my coupons ya know trying to save us money so we can one day be millionaires..............................sorry back to reality. Anyways, after Vacuuming, dusting and the general house clean up. Bret came over to visit with all of us since he hadn't seen us in a while. He and Stefan went to and got 15lbs of crawfish for lunch, I on the other hand had Willies chicken tenders with fries. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful and we just talked and played Wii and such.